> Please enlighten me: who bullshitted you Americans into believing
> that one needs a license to use software?
Since you asked, that would be MAI Systems Corporation in 1993, in a
lawsuit against Peak Computer, Inc.. See
http://www.law.berkeley.edu/journals/btlj/articles/10_1/Nicholson/html/text.html
for a discussion of the case and its implications.
The issue of "ephemeral copies" is currently a hot topic in US
copyright law, and is likely to be decided explicitly by statute in
the near-ish future. This being US copyright law, the issue is likely
to be decided the wrong way--just one more reason to avoid proprietary
commercial software.
> Or that software is patentable?
Nobody has mentioned software patents in this thread but you, as far
as I have seen; perhaps bringing up a completely new topic in a "move
this discussion somewhere else" message isn't wise.
